Flammable liquid storage

I am always concerned about a fire in my shop, as the shop is in the house. I really cannot afford the 500 dollars for a steel cabinet. I have an old refrigerator that has the compressor removed from it. I was considering using this to store my paint, stain and thinners. There is no electricity to this unit, so im not worried about a spark, but is there a danger of explosion? Everything that will be stored in this container will be properly sealed, and the temperature in the shop ranges from about 50 to 5 degrees. Does anyone no a reason why this idea may be dangerous?

5 comments so far

Interesting. Are fire cabinets vented in some way to allow fumes to escape safely. It seems to me that a refrigerator might keep flammable vapors trapped and more dangerously concentrated, but I don’t know.

My flammable storage cabinet has a vent on it, though it’s not hooked up. The difference between it and a fridge though is that a fridge is sealed when you shut the door, a fire cabinet isn’t, so if a lid isn’t perfectly sealed you may get a buildup of fumes. If, for some strange reason, a fire were to start in it, I doubt a fridge will be able to prevent it from spreading. It’s lined in plastic and insulation that’s not meant to handle intense heat and would most likely just add fuel to the fire. The only positive I see for using an old fridge to store chemicals is that if fumes are leaking from a can they can’t get to an ignition source.

I suggest looking at craigslist and ebay and see if any used ones come up for a decent price. It is a big thing to worry about and think of it this way, it may be a big investment, but if it keeps your shop/house from burning down, isn’t that worth the investment?

brianthat is a interressting thing you brought upbut consider this the insulation and the inside of the cabinet is flamingo and plasticso if you do use it my solution wuold be put a slow running small ventilator in the bottomso it will blow air in to it and then you use a small tube from the top and aut of the shopthen there will bee no risk unless if there is a real fire in your shop :—)even with a real stealcabinet you have to do that (here in Denmark there is a law abaut it, if it is in shopswere other people can come )